The body of the criticism: some notes on feminism(s) and literature

Abstract

This article aims at revisiting the feminist literary criticism origins. In this sense, the main concepts that gave basis to the feminist thinking, in each historical moment, are brought back. Besides this, the main women who are of great importance for the feminist imaginary along the history of the movement are also restudied. This historical retake highlights the interdisciplinary concept of the feminist literary criticism since it does not admit the unlinked reading of a text. The exteriority and historical context have to be always considered. Our purpose here is discussing how feminist theory has enriched the field of literary criticism, asking new questions and presenting new problems when it comes to the literary research, like the point of representation of the women in literature and other arts, the question of woman writing and woman authorship, the connections between gender and race, gender and sexual orientation, gender and class and other intersectional perspectives.